Sunday, September 27, 2015

How Necessary Is Medical Tourism?

My opinion: According to the case in the article, many people may seek out medical tourism because physicians in America cannot adequately treat certain patients. While I have heard of this before, many people travel in order to save money on their medical bills, since care is less expensive in other countries. Some companies exist just to provide medical tourist services to Americans. Unfortunately, like in the article, patients may still end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, I wonder how possible it is to outsource healthcare to other countries. Already, medical images are being sent to radiologists in India. However, in this case, these physicians must have a license to practice medicine in the U.S., even though they are located in a different country. I believe that, while many people may try to take advantage of medical tourism, most will not. This is because they may not have access to air travel, have most of their conditions treated well by American doctors, and that doctors in other countries may not be able to take on foreign patients. This is especially true in Canada, where doctors have tight schedules, since universal healthcare resulted in high demand for services. Feel free share your thoughts on this topic.